The Interior Ministry’s refusal to register the candidates under the label “New People’s Economic and Social Union” enrages the new left-wing alliance. At the same time, the presidential majority “Together!” is accepted.
As the deadline for submitting candidacies approaches on May 20, the “NUPES” label will not be registered for these legislative elections. Each candidate will see their result displayed under their initial parties “La France insoumise”, “Europe Écologie Les Verts”, the “Socialist Party” and the “French Communist Party”. Wondering about the future of French democracy, the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon plans to file an appeal with the Council of State to have this alliance recognized during the filing of legislative candidacies.
Unsurprisingly, he shared his displeasure on Twitter on Monday:
We discover that the Ministry of the Interior refuses to register the “New People’s Union” for declarations of candidacy. Is erasing your opponents from the scoreboard still democracy? #NUPES
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) May 16, 2022
“Stop electoral tampering: NUPES must be recognized”, the new left-wing alliance is indignant in a press release published on May 17. The NUPES denounces the will of the macronist camp to destabilize its voters, but also the fact that the right “is the target of the same manipulation”, concerning the parties Les Républicains (LR) and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI).
Mathilde Panot, the president of the LFI group was also indignant on Twitter:
Alert !
Darmanin in his “grid of nuances” refuses to take into account the New Popular Ecological and Social Union while he accepts it for the Macronists.
Two weights, two measures of an à la carte democracy. #NUPES pic.twitter.com/iu9BUfs3KR
— Mathilde Panot (@MathildePanot) May 17, 2022
Dreaming of becoming the next Prime Minister, while Elisabeth Borne becomes the second woman in office since Edith Cresson, Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounces a “permanent deception system”.
See also: Elisabeth Borne appointed Prime Minister: Macron has chosen a woman for Matignon
The Minister of the Interior published a circular online on May 13, which distinguishes “political etiquette”freely chosen by the candidate, and the “political nuance”, assigned by the administration. Faced with the controversy, the ministry considers that each candidate tends to remain “attached to their party of origin”also relying on the fact that each party declared itself “separately for public funding and access to the audiovisual campaign”.
Interviewed on Sud Radio, this Wednesday, May 18, Alexis Poulin, the co-creator of the media Le Monde moderne relates: “The parliamentary majority together exists in the color chart, because “Together!” has formed an association and can request funds, reimbursements in a common way. For NUPES, there has been no association created. For the Ministry of the Interior, impossible to create this political nuance”.
The candidates of the new alliance will therefore see their results displayed separately, unlike the presidential majority “Together!”. While the polls show a high score in favor of NUPES, this political maneuver makes people cringe. Conversely, the presidential majority “Together!” can relax until Friday. The ministry also retorted to NUPES that the nuance “Together!” possesses “a legal existence, a desk”. What to wonder about the future of the left-wing candidates who negotiated for days to reach an agreement…